Apparatus for measuring the flow of liquids in closed conduits.



P. SIMPSON & A. R. T. WOODS. APPARATUS FOR MEASURING THE PLOW OF LIQUIDS IN CLOSED CONDUITS.

APPLICATION TILED MAR.18,1911.

, 1 132 899, 4 Patented Ma1*.16,1915.-

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

, P m WW F. SIMPSON & A. R. T. WOODS.

APPARATUS FOR MEASURING THE FLOW OF LIQUIDS IN CLOSED OONDUIPS. APPLICATION FILED MAR-1B, 1911.

1,13,99, Patented Mar. 16, 1915.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2 I Inven'wrs; Fred )Szimpson a To all whom it may concern."

eaters FREE fiIMRSON, BLUNIDELLSANIDS, NEAR LIVERPOOL AND'ARTHUR R. '1. WOODS, Oll' HARROW, NEAR LONDON, ENGLAND.

v FOR MEASURING THE FLOW OF LIQUIDS IN CLOSED CONDUTTS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. is, rare;

'A ucaa filed narch 18,191i. Serial No. 515,334.

t lmcwn that we, FRED Snursoma subject of the King of Great Britain, and

residing in Blundellsands, near Liverpool,

England, and ARTHUR RoBER'r 'THoMAs WooDs, a subject of the King of Great l fitain, and residing in Harrow, near London, England, have invented certain new and useful improvements in Apparatus for- Measiiring the saw of Liquids in Closed Gcnduits, of which the following is a specification.

This invention comprises certain improvements applicable to our prior invention for which we have made an application for Letters Patent of the United States, filed September-12th, 1910, Serial No. 581,513, which is new Patent $721,068,280 of July 20, 1913. In our said prior specification we have described an arrangement for measuring the rate of flow of a liquid in a closed conduit such as a brine circulating circuit and for measuring leakage and the amount of imprisoned air therein; the arrangement comprising broadly an obstruent in the circuit,

a U gage, connected by small pressure tubes to the circuit pipe on opposite sides of the obstruent, for measuring the loss of head or the velocity of the flowin'gliquid in passing the obstruent, and a smaller obstruent' arranged as a bypass in the gage circuit, so as to provide an alternative path to the main cbstruent. 4

Theobstruent is preferably in the form of a diametral bar fixed across the pipe circuit eitherdiredtly or in a cock plug. The bar may be of any desired cross section such as a trapezoid or a circle, and for calibration purposes, means are provided for varying its elfective dimensions, as for instance, making it of taper form and axially adjustable across the pipe bore.

Our present invention has reference to a mercurial device to be used in connection with the gage, the objects being to increase the pressure range of the gage without increasing its length, andto adapt the gage in a more improved manner to read velocities of flow instead of loss of head.

adapted to give gage readings such that equal lengths on the gage scale indicate equal increments in the velocity. Fig. 3 shows how the mercurial device is arranged 1n relation to the gage, and Fig. 4 is a dlagrammatic view, not to scale, to explain the action. v

Itwill be well to refer in the first place to Fig. 3, in which the relevant parts of our apparatus, as described in our prior specificat on aforesaid, are shown with the mercurial device, which is the subject of our present invention;incorporated. Such parts as are common to our prior specification are correspondingly numbered,-that is to say ;1 is the section of the circuit or pipe 25 in which the-velocity. of flow of the liquid, saybrine, is to be measured, 5 is the 'obstruent' therein and 15 is the gage, the

function of which is to measure the fall of head or pressure of the brine in passing the obstruent, for which purpose the legs of the gage are connected respectively to points in advance and in rear of the obstruent by the small pressure tubes '16 and 17. Thegage 15 is of the inverted U ty e, the bend above the brine columns being lled with a liqu d of lower specific gravity than the brine, and not miscible therewith, such for instance as paraffin oil colored red.

to convert heads of brine and oil into pres sure, then for a ,given value of E, the head shown in the gage 15 without the mercurial I device would be and for a considerable value of E,,the' head forming in effect a U tube, the legs U and D communicating through the cross passage F. lhe legs contain mercury m, and the level thereof can be adjusted by the screwed plug G.

Tubes 17 and 17* enter fluid-tightly into the tops of the legs, and these tubes lead into the gage tubell, a stop cook J being interposed in the tube 1? between its junctions with the tubes 17 and 17.

T is a cock in the tube 17 opening to the atmosphere, and is kept normally closed. it will be seen that when the cock J is closed, the device A is thrown into the run of the tube 17, or in other words, it is put in series 7 with the gage and the cdndition is as shown in the diagram Fig. 4.

The apparatus being entirely filled with liquids, (the letters 6, c and m indicate, re-

spectively, the brine, oil and mercury), all

the brine which may be expelled from the gage leg 15 must enter the leg C.

Let ltl the head shown in the gage 15,

h the head of mercury, M multiplier to convert head of mercury into pressure,

The pressui'e E being thus balanced by the combined heads of brine (and oil) in the gage 15 and of mercury in the device A, it is obvious that for a given value of E, H will be less than it would. be if the device A were not introduced; in other words, the pressure value ota given length of the gage scale is increased and it is adapted to deal with greater pressures.

' The pressure value so given to the scale of cross sectional area of small leg of gage R cross sectional area of leg cross sectional area of leg 3 Let it increase by the amount Afisnd aresult, let. the brine fall in the small gage leg by the amount L (see Fig. 4:). Then the brine wil rise 1n the large gage leg by 15 and the head H will increase by the amount The brine expelled from the will lower the mercury in the leg (.1 o the amount the amount and this will raise the mercury in the leg by the amount l 1 Q R-LXQIRI and the mercury head will thus increase by the amount I AE isbalanced by the combined increase-s 1n the two heads and thus From this equation the value of L for a given value of AE can be determined, and it may be given any value, within limits, by suitably choosing the arbitrary factors l, Q and R.

The device A can obviously be icy-passed and so rendered inoperative by opening the cock J, the head shown in the gage being then, as previously stated, equal to where K is a constant, and the velocities ma be translated from the gage readings by means of a suitable table of corresponding values of E and V. It is obvious, however, that by varyingthe values of Q or R, or both, difierent levels in the legs *0 and D, the brine level in the gage 15 may be made to vary with change of E in such manner that equal spaces on the scale correspond with equal changes of velocity,-within limits. To attain this result it is only necessary ts modify the device shown in l by suhstituting a suitably curved profile for the cylindrical profile of one or both of the C, D. This modification is shown in. 2 the liner being now made with a bore of curved profile forming the leg i The particular dimensions and form of the curve will depend upon the conditions of the case, and from. a consideration ot the equation giving tne value of AE, ordinates of the curve can be determined at various heights, or the equation to the curve can be deduced. v

While we have described our invention with reference to its application to refrigerating brine circuit, it is, 0:3 course, not limited to such. application, and may be i0 ihe proper actien 36 ixwa quantity sf 2. quid new? 1115 Wifi'jbe underwear;

the 1.5 51161116v be @Hilillj 1.1-;- hguzd 80 as :30 msuz e mm 3 1n meaning which W2 mam? pz=ressum maasuri: referrad which ocmlr 11 now fully dees'zmhe 1 Lettszs Patent is:-

1. In eambimaicvn; a liquid aessme mea i; a? leg; nwweaza n ad pan m Jams SL3.-

nid pres-sum 1 tuba;

59, so $11233 Hue proportions 01' forms thereof can ha reaiiiy aliiered;

l aga of the 'aype referred to, and a, bum contammg mercury arranged 1n se wza'zh one 11 of the smd gage, one or V053? la n: 1 m 1 5 51? Q. 0 a "r x WW 0h mu MW 6 1e Jun 01 my sesame: l area. ss th s length of Mm 1 1? be made proporislmml "11.6%:1011 o'i' 'bhe pressure;

0% the type, referred "50, 2, U tubezng marcmfy with mm or 00th Legs 03": 'vmying cross secfienai area, a pair of tubes cmmesiing' the, respective Legs Of the 53 tube to one leg 01? the and av bypass cock heated in the lame? leg" betweenits juncizions with the sail pair of tubes; subsfiamfiiafiy asfi scribsd.

la tesfiimsny whereof, We affix our sigma .11. th s presance of twcwigmssem films SEMIPSQN, ARTHUR J i, TNOQDS' in mmbination; a liquid pressure meas- Animation; :1 liquid pressure 1211:3248"- 

